Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, and the con of diversity

“The current divisions within the Democratic Party over Pelosi will eventually lead to consensus around an imperial agenda.”

The midterm elections have been over for two weeks and the Democrat-controlled House is set to nominate corporate mainstay Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Pelosi has been met with opposition in her own party and the Bezos-owned Washington Posthas questioned whether she will garner enough votes for the nomination . Even Donald Trump felt compelled to come to Pelosi’s aid, offering the long-time California representative votes from the Republican Party . The debate over the Speaker position is indicative of growing divisions with the Democratic Party-wing of the duopoly. However, this debate has little significance for the masses of exploited and impoverished workers and poor people, especially Black Americans,in the United States and around the world. The opposition to Pelosi is a public relations stunt on the part of the Democratic Party, which has long united against the interests of the poor and working-class around the con of diversity.

The con of diversity, as outlined by BAR executive editor Glen Ford, allows the corporate ruling class to brand imperialism as “inclusive” at the expense of Black Americans. Diversity began when affirmative action was effectively tossed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 in theRegents of the University of California v. Bakkecase. Institutions were no longer required to enforce “quotas” for racial minorities, freeing the corporate ruling class from any mandate to provide redress to Black Americans who have been historically disadvantaged by injustices of white supremacy. Diversity served as a convenient replacement for affirmative action. Loyal servants to the U.S. empire and capitalist state were elevated to a small number of high places while poor and working-class Black Americans were denied political and economic power in every aspect of society.

Democrats like Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez are two different strands of the same diversity disease. Pelosi is an entrenched corporate Democrat with a net worth of 196 million dollars . She is a staunch advocate of capitalism and most of her campaign contributions come from large donors or corporate Political Action Committees (PAC). Pelosi has been a major supporter of the drive to war with Russia, a policy that has its roots in her support of U.S. funding for the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush Jr. Administration. In a word, Pelosi is beloved by the ruling class for her decade’s worth of service to finance capital and the war machine even as she promotes herself as a progressive politician for the “99 percent.”

“The opposition to Pelosi is a public relations stunt on the part of the Democratic Party.”

Pelosi’s office was recently occupied by activists from the PAC “Justice Democrats.” Activists demanded support from Pelosi for a Green New Deal. The policy has been a feature of the Green Party’s list of demands on the U.S. government for years, but no Greens were consulted prior to the protest. New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezpaid a visit to the protest as a show of faux-opposition to Pelosi. Despite the sexy optics of the protest, Ocasio-Cortez demonstrated the full extent of the danger that the diversity con game poses to the oppressed and exploited masses. Ocasio-Cortez said this about Pelosi when speaking to the corporate media at the protest, “One of the things that I admire so much about Leader Pelosi, is that she comes from a place of activism and organizing and she really appreciates civic engagement.”

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